


Alone Together

by sibley (ferns)



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, fantasy judaism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 00:52:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16052081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: Sometimes, even though he knows he has people like Callum and his dad, Ezran feels like he's completely alone. He's not expecting the egg of all things to feel the same way.





	Alone Together

Ezran knows, in all his ten year old wisdom, that he’s not  _ really  _ alone. He has Callum, and he has Bait, and of course he has his dad, who is the best dad in the world. But sometimes, he feels like he’s… Like he’s  _ really  _ alone. Like it doesn’t matter that he has anybody in his side, because none of them listen to him. And even if Bait does listen, he doesn’t talk back like the other animals do. All he ever talks about is how hungry he is.

At least Pip is a good conversationalist. Pip talks about all sorts of things. He talks about how King Harrow talks in his sleep, about how he sometimes falls asleep during temple services, especially on the Atonement Days. Ezran thinks that’s funny, because his dad pretends to get mad at him for doing the same thing on Atonement Day services  _ and  _ New Years services, but only when Opeli is around. Then he laughs and pats his head and says it’s ok. Pip talks about Callum, too, about how King Harrow wants him to call him  _ dad,  _ and gets sad every time he doesn’t.

Okay, maybe Pip just likes to talk, and not listen. But he likes it when Ezran takes him down to the stables to eat the ticks and flies and fleas off the horses, and when he’s happy, Harrow is happy, and when Harrow is happy, he spends time with Ezran and Callum. So it’s good for everybody in the family when Pip is happy.

But nobody listens when he says that he can understand Pip, or the raccoons, or Bait, or  _ anybody.  _ Except…  _ She _ used to. His mom used to. Ezran knew that she was mostly just humoring him. He wasn’t  _ dumb  _ or a baby like everybody said. He just thought about things differently, and he had different friends. Aunt Amaya said that he was special, and that his mom was special too, which was why she understood him so well.

And then she was just-gone. She was gone and their dad talked to them about it, about how they could come to him with their feelings, but Pip told him (told them both, technically, but Callum didn’t know how to listen) that Harrow was hurting too, that he was-that he was being pushed to his breaking point by Queen Sarai’s death. That he was hanging on for Ezran and Callum’s sakes, but he needed time alone. Of course Pip hadn’t meant it to be hurtful, but it sure had felt that way.

So Ezran was alone again.

Until he found the egg.

He still hasn't told Callum exactly  _ how  _ he found it. Not the part about him running through the castle passageways, since they’re an open secret, and Callum of course knew that they must have been how Ezran got from place to place so fast. Their mom had probably shown him the way through a handful of them, but not the way that she had with Ezran. Callum hadn’t grown up running through the secret doors, hiding inside hidden hallways. But the way he had discovered the egg itself, inside of the secret room he’d never been inside, because Viren had always been there, too intimidating a presence for Ezran to ignore.

He had just been passing through, searching for a jelly tart-the Costume Festival was almost there, which is why so many were being made, and nothing made him feel better quicker than a grape jelly tart. It would cheer him up, push Callum’s  _ stupid  _ statement that his  _ dad,  _ that  _ their  _ dad, was going to  _ die,  _ to the back of his mind where it couldn’t bother him or Bait or  _ anybody.  _ Push it away because It would all be fine. Everything would be fine. He just needed something to cheer him up.

And then he had felt it. Something so strong it had pushed through the stone walls of the castle as he slipped through the secret corridors. Something that made him stop, and clutch Bait closer, and turn and  _ sprint  _ in that direction, even though he knew what room it would inevitably take him too. Ezran didn’t know how to read the emotions of  _ humans,  _ but animals, especially magical animals, were different. They were good and they were nice on his brain and when they were in pain then they trusted him to make them better.

It was simple, but it seemed like nobody could understand it. Except whatever was so powerful and alone and  _ alive _ did. Ezran just  _ knew  _ it did! So he had to find it! Even if it was in Lord Viren’s scary, weird, dark study. That Bait didn’t like because it was full of gross things, including Glow Toad parts stuck in green smelly liquid.

And then once Ezran found it, he had to show Callum  _ immediately,  _ because there was finally something that understood what it was like to do nothing more than feel, powerfully and surely and above anything else, that it  _ wanted its mother. _

He hadn’t expected to feel any sort of egg that felt like that, much less one so big and shiny. One that Rayla had immediately identified as the egg of a dragon. But it had been nice, to be able to talk to the egg when he couldn’t talk to Callum. To another kid that just wanted their mom, even if it hurt to admit that. Of course Ezran knew that Callum missed her too, but Callum was always insisting that he wasn’t a kid, and Callum never believed him about  _ anything. _

So the egg had been his friend. The egg had been the only one who understood. Until Rayla and Callum dropped it into the water, until Ezran had heard it  _ screaming  _ in fear of the cold, dark lake, and he had done the only thing that he could do, which was jump in after it and pray for the best. The fish down there had been helpful, but not helpful enough. Fish were kinda like Soren, Ezran had found. Good intentioned most of the time but kinda dumb.

Which is how they ended up here. In this slowly melting away ice cave. With Ezran sniffling and sneezing despite Rayla’s supposed Xadian cure for the cold and with the egg dying, slowly but surely. Of course, Rayla and Callum believed him that the egg was in pain, because of the way its pulsating and shining had dimmed an darkened, but they couldn’t feel it the way that he could. They didn’t feel that even though it was less lonely now, just like Ezran was ever since he had found it, it was hurting. Crying out in pain and making it so that it was hard for Ezran to sleep, because all he wanted to do was make it feel better.

His mom had said, once upon a time, that it was a good thing Ezran felt so strongly. She had kissed his forehead and squeezed his shoulder and said that it was okay that nobody else understood him. That he was special, and that was all that mattered, but Ezran didn’t think that was so true now. That it was bad to feel so much. It was nice, talking to Bait, and the egg, and Pip, and the raccoons when they weren’t lying, and the fish in the royal pond who ate their crumbs on Atonement Day, and the bluebirds who always seemed to be around when Rayla was, and  _ everything.  _ But it made him different. And different wasn’t always a good thing.

Which was when the the egg made a soft little glow, and Ezran rests his hand on it and smiles. Different was good, when the egg was around. When he could protect it, until they could bring it to its mother. Ezran knew that if he had been lost and alone and kidnapped by some creepy guy with a weird staff who kept trying to lock Pip up in a  _ cage  _ like he wasn’t a  _ bird  _ with  _ wings,  _ he would want somebody to take him back to his mom. So that’s what they had to do with the egg. That’s what they had to do with the egg, before it  _ died. _

Died like Ezran and Callum’s mother had.

The egg glows again, sending  _ worry worry worry worry worry pain pain  _ down to him. Or up to him? When he was sitting like this, it was probably down to him, but with his hair, he was definitely taller than it… Hmm. Callum would know. Callum was good at measuring things. He said he had to be, because it made stuff easier to draw.

Ezran rubs his eyes and tries to swallow his worry away and curls up around the egg, kissing its shell even though it makes him feel a bit silly. “We’ll get you to your mother,” he says quietly, as the egg glows just a little bit stronger and brighter than before at his warmth. “Just hang on, okay? Everything is gonna be okay. You’ll see.”

_ I know,  _ the egg says softly back, and Ezran smiles.

He may still feel alone, despite Callum and Rayla’s now constant presences, but at least he has someone to be alone with now. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm augustheart on tumblr.


End file.
